The process flow for semiconductor fabrication of integrated circuits (ICs) may include front-end-of-line (FEOL), middle-of-line (MOL), and back-end-of-line (BEOL) processes. The front-end-of-line process may include wafer preparation, isolation, well formation, gate patterning, spacer, extension and source/drain implantation, silicide formation, and dual stress liner formation. The middle-of-line process may include gate contact formation. Middle-of-line layers may include, but are not limited to, middle-of-line contacts, vias or other layers within close proximity to the semiconductor device transistors or other active devices. The back-end-of-line process may include a series of wafer processing steps for interconnecting the semiconductor devices created during the front-end-of-line and middle-of-line processes.
Successful fabrication of modern semiconductor chip products involves interplay between the materials and the processes employed. In particular, the formation of conductive material plating for the semiconductor fabrication in the back-end-of-line processes is an increasingly challenging part of the process flow. This is particularly true in terms of maintaining a small feature size. The same challenge of maintaining a small feature size also applies to passive on glass (POG) technology, where high-performance components such as inductors and capacitors are built upon a highly insulative substrate that may also have a very low loss.
Passive on glass devices involve high-performance inductor and capacitor components that have a variety of advantages over other technologies, such as surface mount technology or multi-layer ceramic chips that are commonly used in the fabrication of mobile radio frequency (RF) chip designs (e.g., mobile RF transceivers). The design complexity of mobile RF transceivers is complicated by the migration to a deep sub-micron process node due to cost and power consumption considerations. Spacing considerations also affect mobile RF transceiver design deep sub-micron process node. For example, fabrication of mobile RF transceivers may include a dummy area at a die area boundary that occupies wasted space and involves an increased cost.